Mintcoin

Mintcoin (code: MINT), also known as MintCoin, is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that uses both proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) systems.
Mintcoin was inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Peercoin and it shares much of the source code and technical implementation of these predecessors. MintCoin is an innovative, secure and energy efficient PoW/PoS coin which features a faster PoW distribution mechanism to distribute the initial coins; a minable PoW target of 5 weeks was chosen after which the coin essentially transferred to a pure PoS coin. This integration allowed Mintcoin to attain a fair initial distribution, swiftly convert to an energy efficient sustainable coin, and eliminate the need for perpetual mining equipment and energy consumption.
Mintcoin was introduced internationally February 6, 2014 to a user base of thousands of miners and investors and is currently the 18th-largest minable cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Distinguishing features
Transactions
A peer-to-peer network handles Mintcoin's transactions, balances and issuance through scrypt. Transactions are recorded in the Mintcoin blockchain (a ledger held by most clients).
Addresses
Payments in the Mintcoin network are made to addresses, which are based on digital signatures. They are strings of 34 numbers and letters which always begin with the letter M.
Confirmations
A new block is added to the blockchain roughly every 30 seconds with 4 confirmations per transaction, thus fast 2 mins confirmation per transaction. For PoS minting, 50 confirmations are required for minted blocks.
Hard limit coin cap
The Mintcoin network will produce 70 billion mintcoins.
Initial distribution
700 million (1% of total coins) were initially premined being used for bounties, giveaways, development, support and maintenance, new feature developments etc. The initial PoW payout distribution was 100,000 - 900,000 coins per block, halving every week; after the initial weeks expired, the PoW payout became fixed at 1 coin per block with future coin generations predominantly to come from PoS.
Initial PoS payouts are as follows:
*1st year: 20%
*2nd year: 15%
*3rd year: 10%
*4th and subsequent years: 5%
Once the coin cap is reached, the network will continue running on minimal PoW transaction fees and PoS will continue without generating new mints under the reasonable assumption that invested parties will continue to provide proof-of-stake services to secure the network for the benefit of securing their own interests as the cost to secure is minimal, not energy intensive, and the coin will grow ever rarer over time.
Understanding the PoS minting process
Mintcoins must be held "unmoved" in a mintcoin wallet for at least 20 days. After the 20 day mark, coins begin to accrue coin age with every second of time that passes. When the amount of coin age accumulated it enough to be minted, they will become staked and, if successful, will mint new mintcoins. There is no guarantee minting will occur precisely after the 20 day mark. 20 days is the earliest possible, but more than likely it could take several days longer depending on how many coins are set up for minting. PoS minting replaces PoW mining in that the more coins used for minting will have better odds of generating PoS blocks. The PoS component makes mintcoins particularly attractive to both merchants as well as private households for short-term investment as up to 20% "interest" (see table above) can be earned that way. The PoS minting process is very similar in concept to PoW mining; for example: a small amount of PoW mining hashpower will take you longer to find PoW blocks; the same holds true in PoS minting in that a small amount of coins will take you longer to find PoS blocks and mint new mintcoins. Just as 1 solo-miner is very unlikely to find a PoW block, 1 mintcoin is unlikely to generate ANY new coins, as the probability is so small. Just as acquiring additional PoW mining gear helps to generate more hashpower and more PoW blocks and more coins, acquiring additional mintcoins helps to generate more PoS blocks and more coins; each mintcoin has power to accrue coin age which "mints" new coins just like mining gear generates hashpower and "mines" traditional coins. It is in this way that the energy efficient PoS minting effectively eliminates the perpetual need to acquire ever-costly mining gear.

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